Entrepreneurship in the Time of COVID-19
It is always a challenge for entrepreneurs to try and predict what customers will want in the future. But now things are even more unpredictable. And government regulations aren't helping either.
It is always a challenge for entrepreneurs to try and predict what customers will want in the future. But now things are even more unpredictable. And government regulations aren't helping either.
Although many claim "nobody saw this coming," some entrepreneurs planned ahead and also have found ways to cater to customers under new conditions.
Capitalists and entrepreneurs serve distinct functions in the real economy. Capitalists save money that then maintains production processes until final goods are produced. Entrepreneurs adjust the capital structure in light of uncertainty to produce the most desired goods. Capitalists are rewarded with interest, entrepreneurs with profit.
The coronavirus crisis has unleashed two types of bankruptcies that are very different, have different causes, and should require different solutions.
Formal models of the economy, writes Murray Rothbard, tend to overlook a crucial instrument of change: entrepreneurship.
Market entrepreneurship is what generates net value in society, whereas social entrepreneurship is primarily the use of that value.
The economy is not primarily about the adjustment of capital investment across industries and firms, but about the determination of which industries and types of production will exist—and who will be involved in this future production.
Innovations aren't very useful unless they serve consumers in the marketplace. Otherwise, we're pursuing innovation for its own sake, and that isn't progress.
Mathematics enjoys the prestige of being truly “scientific,” but it is difficult to mathematize the messy and fuzzy uncertainties and inevitable errors of real world entrepreneurship and human actions.